He’d been but a little boy, when he had lived here before and there were simply no landmarks to be seen other than the trees in front of us. Still he seemed confident of our progress and I was willing to trust his judgment for a little while longer before interceding. He hadn’t said much in the past two days and I could tell that it still bothered him that we had destroyed everything like we had back there. It had been for the best though and I hoped that he came to see that as I now did.
He stopped and waited till I drew abreast of him, “Over that way the forest breaks up into some grassy parks, which will increase our speed not having to fight through this understory.”
“Lead on John. I’m game for a chance to see the sky again.”
“Me too!” Echoed the others in the group sounding like a chorus in their exuberance to be free of the forest at least temporarily.
Father John hesitated for a moment and then continued, “There is a village that way that we won’t be able to avoid. It’s run by women.”
Seth leaned forward in the saddle, “Go on priest what about the women!”
Father John looked somewhat annoyed at Seth’s’ obvious interest but continued, “It’s a matriarchal society. Men are seen as less than women and do the work normally left to the women to do, but they are not hostile to outside men in general. They just think they are better. It’s perfectly safe to visit the village. We just have to be careful not to get them angry, as they can be rather forceful when angered.”
Seth was looking at me with pleading eyes, which I ignored. I was tired of fighting this jungle and it would be nice to have a roof over my head for a change.
“If you say it’s safe enough, that is if we behave ourselves!” I said with emphasis, as I looked at Seth sternly! “And that it’ll cut time off the journey we’ll go that way.” Father John nodded and turned his horse in the direction he had indicated.
Soon true to his word the forest broke up into a series of grassy parks that appeared as if they were islands in the sea of trees around them.
Several hours later we could see smoke in the distance up ahead of us. That must be the village run by the women that John had spoken of. This no doubt was going to be a unique experience.
As we drew closer to the village I began to see just how unique an experience it was going to be. It was like seeing two villages instead of just one. John had told us that the men were forced to live in the lower village and take care of the children, while the women lived exclusively in the upper village and only invited the men there occasionally for procreational purposes.
Not quite sure yet of what we were getting ourselves into I followed John regretting my decision of earlier to come this way already. The lower village’s condition was extremely poor at best in terms of quality of living conditions.
The men gathered around the hovels weren’t much to speak of. They had the worn broken look of slaves about them, which made me uneasy. There were girls in bountiful supply running around excited by what must be a strange occurrence for them, but I didn’t see any boys. That was odd.
We were coming to the end of the village, when one man caught my eye. He was staring at me intently. So intent that I thought I might have to look away from the awkwardness it made me feel. He pulled a young girl with raven black hair and skin the color of dark mahogany in front of him and made a gesture with his hands, a gesture I could see echoed in his eyes as well.
He wanted me to take the girl away from this place when I left. The whole scene had made me uncomfortable and I looked away unsure of what was going on here other than that I didn’t like it.
My attention was drawn to the second village higher up off the plain and more encased in the shelter of the forest, which is when I saw the women. So had the others, if the mumbled affectations of I’m not sure what that could be heard rolling off the lips of Seth directly behind me could be interpreted as. I had never seen such women as these. Most of them were of a taller build with some being shorter, but all of them were muscular and lithe of form. Some had long flowing hair, while others had their hair cut close to their heads, but one thing was universal, none of them were wearing practically anything.
They were decorated in all manner of beads and pretty trinkets, with elaborate tattoos that seemed to flow across the large expanses of bare skin in continuous patterns. Some had short skirts of leather, while others had breach clouts that left a lot exposed. Most wore a bright strip of fabric that encased their breasts, while others were completely topless. I could hear Seth swearing under his breath now, but for a different reason other than a moral objection, as to the wanton appearance of these women.
Why had John a priest at that, not told me of how extreme these women had taken their little society? We came to the center of the village and John dismounted as did the rest of us.
It was one of the most uncomfortable moments of my life. My body had completely let me down. It had been manageable, while seated in the saddle to remain objective looking and seemingly in control, but having to dismount and stand revealed an embarrassingly hopeless reaction in relation to how much visual stimulation I was receiving anywhere and everywhere my eyes went to.
Not being in control of my body was quite humiliating, but worse than that was the feeling that I was somehow letting the Creator down by allowing myself to be affected by the bare and very beautiful female bodies on full display all around me.
Thankfully John did all of the talking. Having come to an agreement that we wanted shelter for the night and that we would be moving on in the morning they invited us to a feast in our honor that night, which he accepted on behalf of all of us.
Their spokeswoman was a tall voluptuous blond, who Seth hadn’t managed to take his eyes off of yet. I began to notice an increasingly sensual demeanor of the women towards us and I made a quick decision and turned Flin around. I led him away from the others and back towards the lower village.
I myself had been the subject of a lot of hungry looks, but I did not intend on satisfying any of them much to my body’s dismay. About the best thing I could do right now to avoid affronting there barbaric sense of hospitality was to remove myself from the situation as best as I could.
I made my way back towards the lower village my face completely red knowing how it must look to these exotic women, as to what my actions probably insinuated to them. It was not the favorable view that any red blooded male would want thought of him by beautiful women or anyone for that matter.
The carnal side of me wanted to stay and keep looking and even more than that it wanted to reach out and touch the forbidden, but something stronger than the carnal side of me was screaming out to just keep walking away.
I didn’t see Seth and the other two men follow the women into the upper village, so intent was I on leaving the scene of my own moral crisis of conflict. Nor did I see what became of John. I knew what would be happening soon back there in the village and the regret that flashed through my body at what I was missing out on was a palpable feeling of loss.
Surely it didn’t really matter in the big scope of things what happened in this isolated village filled with barbaric sensual eyed women that had nothing but sensual promise of a good time in their eyes?
Somehow it did matter though and so I kept walking uncomfortably away from my passion’s desire, while I called myself every kind of a fool in my head for doing so. I had never had sex before, which was a secret that I kept closely guarded and private. Everyone that had known me in my adult life would never have guessed it of me given my years in the arena. As a reward in the arena for simply surviving or for giving a good show to the audience fighters were gifted with better food and weapons to defend themselves with.
Serving girls and slave girls alike were thrown into the cells of a select few of the better fighter’s almost every night. I had been one of those better fighters for almost my entire duration within the arena.
One look at the frightened faces of the gir
ls or even the older women that were thrown into my cell at night had always proven a greater deterrence to me than acting out on any of the manly desires that I had bottled up inside of me ever since I was an older boy. Instead of adding to the pain and misery of their lives for a few moments of pleasure on my part I had instead talked to them and shared my food with them and let them spend the night in peace. I had become friends with quite a few of them over the years. Even now since I was free of that world and didn’t have the strictures of a cell around me and there were women who openly expressed interest in me it still felt wrong to indulge myself.
I had the sense that there was something better, something worth waiting for someday for me and so I held on to that dream and guarded it jealously hoping that it would come sooner rather than later. I remembered my mother and what she and my father had together and knew that was what I wanted for myself too.
It was worth holding out for and now with my new found faith altering the very threadwork of my life it was simply the right thing to do. Looking up at the sky as I led Flin towards the lower village I said, “Lord knowing the right thing to do sure doesn’t make it any easier! Help me!”
The voluptuous blond was leading Seth by the hand towards a hut while three other women pressed themselves close to him sensuously along the way there. Seth could hardly contain himself over his good fortune.
Their progress was abruptly stopped by another woman, who reached out and stopped Seth’s journey toward the hut with a firm grip of his tunic shirt front. The woman was tall and very beautiful. She had dark black hair and her skin was the color of dark chocolate.
Seth was busy in the process of drinking in her exotic beauty, when she asked authoritatively, “Your friend does not care for women? Does he prefer boys instead?”
Seth was puzzled by what she meant until following her outstretched arm he saw that she was pointing at Roric’s retreating form.
“Him! Oh no I’m pretty sure he prefers women! He’s just a little shy and to serious for his own good sometimes.”
Seth disappeared into the hut with the other women. The blond leader paused, “Are you not coming Kana?”
“No, I want him!” Kana said pointing after Roric’s retreating form.
“Have it your way Kana, but you’re missing out.” The blond said before ducking into the tent.
I entered the village of men subconsciously looking for the man, who had caught my attention earlier. I had tried to ask a passing man for help, but the man had just hurried away from me, with fear written all over his face. Puzzled by their behavior I decided to leave. I was almost out of the village, when the man I had seen earlier motioned to me from behind a hut for me to follow him. Curious but wary of a trap I followed him at a distance.
He led me to a group of trees near a little brook on the edge of the forest. We were out of sight of both villages. He snapped his fingers and gave a come hither motion. The little girl he’d had with him before came out from some reeds she’d been hiding behind and stood in front of the man.
Putting his hands on the girl’s shoulders the man said haltingly, “You must leave now and take the girl with you!”
“Why? Am I in danger? Is she in danger?”
“Yes!” The man said shaking his head vehemently.
“In danger from whom?” I asked. The man shook his head violently in denial of answering my question, as I saw fear intensify in his eyes.
“With your permission I’ll have your horse saddled here with the young girl waiting for you tonight. Come before dark! You must go and take the girl with you!” With that said the man hurried away from the hiding spot with the girl.
“Where are all the boys?” I asked to his retreating back, but he didn’t answer me.
Spooky little man I thought. He didn’t seem to be all there upstairs. One thing was for sure though, he loved that little girl. The girl couldn’t be much older than about six.
I started to leave the cove and then stopped myself. If there was some element of truth to what the man had said it would be good to have Flin hid where I could get to him. I tied Flin to a stump and made my way back to the women’s camp or at least the outskirts of it.
The little girl came out from behind some reeds, after she saw that the big man had left. Flin turned his head and nickered softly at the girl as she drew closer, Flin side stepped away from her before she reached him.
The girl pulled a long carrot out from her sleeve and held it out to him. Flin nickered again and after a moment’s hesitation ambled up to the little girl. He snuffled her head blowing her hair everywhere, which caused the little girl to giggle.
Flin leaned down and took the carrot form her hand and ate it noisily. After Flin was finished he looked down at her hopefully. She didn’t disappoint, as with a little grin she pulled out another carrot.
I pulled away from the tree I had been peering around and smiling I continued on my way to the outskirts of the village. Flin was in good hands.
I looked around the perimeter of the village to see if anything could be learned of any possible danger to us that would validate the little man’s fears for the girl’s safety. I was about to give up and reenter the village, when I saw John slip out of the village. His actions were those of a man who wished to remain unseen.
He moved deeper into the forest and I followed after him from a distance. An hour later to my shame I had to admit to myself that he was more adept at alluding pursuit than I was at tracking him, which surprised me because I was pretty good at tracking.
I had lost him within five minutes of him entering the forest. I was headed back to the village for the evening feast, when I heard a sound that stopped me in my tracks. After a moment of intensive listening it became clear to me that what I heard was the sound of a horse browsing.
Following the direction of the noise I soon found its source. John’s horse stood saddled in a hidden alcove of the forest. No one was around. Scouting the area I found a grassy knoll that had a depression in the grass where someone had sat for a long period of time. John? Perhaps he had wanted to avoid the lusty afternoon back at the village as I had. Why else would he come out here? Did he sense danger too and if so why had he not informed me of it?
Probably thought I’d be busy whoring like the others were and past caring about such things. I got back to the village as the evening shadows began to grow dark only to find that the feast was already in full swing. I made my way carefully past the bare female bodies to Seth’s side and sat down.
The evening wasn’t without its share of lusty entertainment either. Several girls were moving sensuously to the rhythm of a savage beat being drummed out by several older women on old looking drums that appeared as if they had seen long service.
Seth and the other men were completely absorbed by the entertainment, as if they couldn’t get enough of it to satisfy themselves to look away for even a moment. Seth did notice me as I sat down beside him.
He turned to me putting an arm around my shoulder as he did so, “Tell me brother, why did you miss out on enjoying yourself this afternoon? It doesn’t get any better than this!”
At my expression Seth exploded optimistically forth with, “Don’t worry there’s still tonight. That one!” He said indicating the blond leader. “You’ve got to try her and that short brunette over there. You wouldn’t believe what she can do with her….”
I stopped Seth mid sentence. “Seth, what you do is your business, but you should be on your guard around these women! Something isn’t right around here! Don’t you feel it?”
“You know me boss I’m always on my guard.” Seth said half jokingly turning his attention back to the dancers, which were taking it up another notch in intensity. I ate till I was full. Admittedly the food was very good and it helped to ease the miserable experience I was having overall.
Suddenly John got up and left the feast. He had sat quietly over there on the far side of the fire all during the feast with
out saying anything. He hadn’t seemed interested in the girls at all and strangely enough they hadn’t been in him either.
More of the women joined the few twirling dancers and things were getting wilder and more out of control by the moment. Some sixth sense within me started sounding out an internal alarm bell. I slipped out from the fire’s light, as Seth unable to restrain himself anymore leaped to his feet to join in with the dancers.
Slipping past the last few women at the edge of the feasting area I headed towards where John’s horse was located figuring that I would find John there. Several minutes later I heard a sound behind me. I had just crossed a moonlit clearing in the forest. Wheeling around ready to face one enemy or several I instead saw one of the women from the camp. She was tall and of a darker skin color than most of the other women, and yet she was very beautiful. She moved towards me her gaze direct and admiring.
“You are the man I wish to mate with. You will make me strong daughters.”
Somewhat taken back by her statement I was speechless as she approached with all the grace the feminine form can offer. She reached behind her and undid the fabric concealing and supporting her breasts. The fabric fell to the ground and I swallowed reflexively.
This was getting way out of control in a hurry! I stared at her spellbound as she glided toward me. As she reached me she turned and pressed back against me grabbing my hands as she did so and before I could think as to what she might be doing with them she brought them up to cup her full breasts, even as she rubbed back against me with her bottom.
“You like Kana?”
Trying to figure out my course of action let alone control my rampant senses was hard to come by in this moment, but I tried. All that seemed to matter in this moment was fulfilling the pent up need I had been repressing for years.
You need to focus Roric! You need to be careful remember? Remember what? Why you’re in the forest? John! It had been something about John hadn’t it? The horse in the woods, his strange behavior and his horrifically bad choice of coming to this village of tempting hedonistic women!
A Warrior's Redemption (The Warrior Kind) Page 20